Piece of Cake
by beautifulpickle
Summary: It takes a lot for Hiei to gain interest in something, and although he initially viewed Hiroko Ogawa as a clumsy, idiotic, and peculiar being, he can't help but feel a small spark of curiosity when she enters his field of vision. Hiei x OC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Prolouge of my first Hiei x OC centric story. Rated T for strong language. **

* * *

"Transportation isn't usually this exciting where I come from," I yelled at the blue cotton candy haired spirit guide. The wind speed picked up dramatically and I found my fingers tightly gripping the edge of her oar for dear life.

Botan chuckled as she soared higher, "You get used to it after a couple hundred years," she slowed down a bit as, much to my relief. Even though I met her literally five minutes ago after she rudely barged into my window (scaring the loving crap out of me, I might add), I figured that I liked her. Most people wouldn't like the thought of being dragged out of the human realm by the all-fearing grim- reaper, but after seeing this bright eyed and peppy spirit, I couldn't help but feel relaxed around her presence.

The once blue sky slowly began turning into a pinkish orange hue; I looked down only to see the city sky scrapers turn into a long river beneath our feet. "Woah, what is this place," I said more to myself than to Botan.

She heard me anyways and grinned, "We're flying over the river styx right now. It's beautiful isn't it?" she sighed wistfully. I knew that after today, I was going to laugh every Halloween when someone would wear a cloak and carry a scythe. Who knew shinigami's could be this happy? "What did you get called in for anyways? You're obviously not dead," she noted that I was very much in fact, breathing.

"It's a long story, but to clip it short, I have information he needs, and he knows the location to something I want," Botan only nodded in understanding, choosing not to pry any further.

The rest of the ride was met with comfortable silence as I admired the view under my feet. By the time we reached a giant building with red tiled roofs, Botan hopped off her oar and motioned for me to do the same. "Well, here we are," Her bubbly demeanor changed a bit when she walked up to the door with a bit more professionalism. She led me hallway after hallway, all of them rushing with ogres of different color, scrambling with stacks of paper in their hands. The hallway of ogres slowly started to get less congested as we pushed our way through until we reached a massive golden door.

"Ah hear she comes now," I heard a voice call out as the door creaked open. Inside was a fairly male dominated room with the exception of a pretty red-headed woman with green eyes.

"Hello Hiroko, my name in Kurama," scratch that, she was a dude.

"Yusuke," a guy who donned a green uniform with slicked black hair raised two fingers in acknowledgment.

"Hey, I'm Kuwabara," Kuwabara probably had the weirdest hairstyle in the room, even weirder than that short dude with the hair that seemed to defy gravity. He had bright orange hair that was coiffed into a 1950's punk pompadour style, and although he had the face of a thug, he seemed pleasantly happy to see me.

"The one in the corner is Hiei, he doesn't talk much so don't expect him to answer you," Yusuke explained, pointing his thumb over the short one with the spiky hair.

Hiei probably stood out the most, which was weird considering how he was the one that tried so hard to hide in the shadows. It was probably because his face seemed to be etched with a permanent scowl and he stared at me like I was some cockroach who chose to invade his designated space.

"Uh, hey what's up?" I pulled up the loose cream sweater that slipped off my shoulder from the ride here. "I guess Koenma already filled you in on why you're all in this room."

"Actually no, not really. He didn't explain much other than the fact that we have a new mission which involved us protecting someone," Kurama informed.

"What?!" I gave him the most menacing look as possible only for it to be replied with a shrug. "First of all, I hope Koenma didn't make it seem like a witness protection program because it's not, and secondly, he asked _me _for help."

"Help for what?" Kuwabara quipped in.

I bit my lip in agitation, it was a bad habit I picked up from when I was still a kid, but explaining my life story was something I hated doing with a passion. No one likes revisiting unpleasant parts of their past.

"My dad was a—," I began before Kuwabara rudely cut me off.

"Oh! Oh I know this one, he was a demon," he grinned proudly.

"Magician." I continued curtly. Normally, he would have probably received the stink eye from me throughout my whole flashback speech, but the look of disappointment on his face stopped me from doing so. "Well not exactly a magician, but he was a magical creature. A fey to be exact."

"What's a fey?" Yusuke asked.

"A fairy, no not that kind so can you kindly stop snickering Kuwabara," I rolled my eyes, watching the tall man hold back a laugh. "And no, they're not all wings and pretty hair, a lot look just like humans, except they contain magical properties."

"Like what?" Yusuke again. I mentally groaned, if he kept asking me anymore questions, this explanation was going to be a lot longer than necessary.

"Brewing potions, having them actually work, healing, screwing around with people by turning invisible, shape shifting. You name it. Some even have pretty cool powers where they can control water and fire," I explained.

"So they're kind of like demons," Kurama asked. So far, he was my favorite out of the four, since he irritated me the least.

"Well.. I mean sure. Interestingly enough, fey called demons at one point. There are different names for everything and different worlds we haven't discovered yet, heck I didn't even know the grim reaper was a chick until a couple of hours ago," I added. "Might I throw in that this meeting would go a hell of a lot faster if you save all the questions for later," I said as politely as possible.

The boys nodded their heads as I finally began. "My dad was specifically good at potion making, he had a talent when it came to it. He was kind of like a chemist in the magical world. Creatures left and right would try to find his little cabin in the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere and risk their lives trudging through the forest just to beg him to make something for them. He could could raise stamina, brew up cures, mix potions to make your eyeballs bleed out of your mouth, all that good stuff. But one day, he fucked up big time," I crouched a bit lower for dramatic effect, like I was telling a group of kids something right out grimm fairytale.

"He made a potion that could grant eternal life for whoever drank it."

There was a pause before I heard Yusuke's snort "That's it? That's the big fuck up. Sheesh," Yusuke waved his hand, unimpressed. I responded by throwing a stapler at him, earning a small smirk from Hiei.

"You obviously don't understand how serious it is to live forever. Specially if that power went into the wrong hands. You just finished the dark tournament right? Well think of what would happen if Toguro had the ability to live forever," I almost laughed when I saw him audibly gulp. "That's right, you wouldn't be able to think because you would probably be dead, along with everyone else in this room."

Yusuke glared at me and bit the inside of his cheek. "Okay I get it, it's bad news. What the hell are we supposed to do about it."

"I was getting there Yusuke," I massaged my temples, trying to keep my face straight. "Like I said, that potion is very bad business. Anyways, my dad had this apprentice that worked with him, Hayato, if I remembered correctly. Hayato was obsessed with my dad, acting more like a body guard then his helper. He would kill any creature that dared raise his voice at him," my fingers felt strained as I realized I had been clenching them throughout the whole story.

"One day, a pretty little thing made it to my dad's cabin, desperately asking him to make a cure for her dying father. She was a feisty soul and wouldn't take no for an answer. My dad fell in love with her almost instantly," I breathed in deep, talking about both of them still hurt pretty bad.

"Potion brewing was a dangerous business. A lot of people would try to kill dad if they didn't get what they wanted, even before he met my mom he was already thinking of giving it up. Hayato always disagreed with him, almost threatening him until he swore to never quit. He figured that his apprentice was kind of crazy, so right after he whipped up that magical, life curing potion, he fled with my mama outside of his magical cabin and onto the bustling world of what we now call Japan," I said a bit too enthusiastically. I was never really good at reciting things in a serious matter, if a subject hurt too much, I would find a way to make it easier for me to explain it.

"I popped out soon after and we lived our simple lives in silence and peace until I turned sixteen. Dad was kind of dumb and it turned out that he left all his potion recipes inside the cabin. Hayato found it and..," my voice was quivering at this point and I found it hard to keep up my act nonchalance.

"I remember mom and dad seemed kind of weird that day. Mom stressed specifically that I wear her red cloak and asked me to go into the nearest store to get some maraschino cherries for the new dessert dad was trying to make. By the time I got home.. the only thing that was left was two dead corpses that looked a lot like my parents and a bloody trail of footsteps that led to them," I stopped for a moment, trying to regain my composure. I wasn't going to cry, I was already past that, but remembering the scene was hard for me to do.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" Botan asked worriedly. "You look kind of sick."

I nodded slowly, shrugging her hand off. I didn't know what face I was making, but it must have been something because everyone in the room looked at me as if I grew another head. "I was too shell shocked for the scene that I didn't even hear Hayato come in from behind me, he tried to lunge towards me but for some reason it was hard for him to even get close to me. He kept saying something about the book. Give him the damn book. He kept trying to make me spit it out, threatening to snap my neck like he did with my parents."

They all stared at me, waiting for me to continue. Even Hiei turned his head to listen to my story. "He left as soon as he realized he couldn't touch me and that I honestly didn't know anything. I realized soon after that the cloak had some type of magical property. It was probably only meant to be worn by my mother, that that cloak was most likely the reason why she even survived long enough to find my dad. Luckily, it still worked for me because I was technically an extension of her, but every time I wear it, it feels like her protection is slowly fading" I sighed heavily. Reciting all of this was putting a serious damper on my mood, the last thing I wanted to talk about was feeling the only connection I had with my mom slipping away.

"About a month ago, I finally got to cleaning my dads study after nearly two years of not touching it. I didn't want to clean up the place, because the more untouched it was, the more it seemed like they were just on a really long vacation," the room was completely silent by now, and Kuwabara looked like he was about to cry.

"I found a note inside his study table that was addressed to me. It had my name on and everything written in his sloppy chicken scratch. Most of it sounded like his last confession to a priest rather than his daughter, but on the bottom, all it read was 'go to the basement of my old cabin. Find the hollow floorboard and look for the green book with the silver binding, there you will find the answers to everything. The meaning to happiness is wedged in the spine of the book, keep it safe, my Hiroko' .."

my voice trailed off and I couldn't bring myself to lift up my head.

"Sorry to end on such a sour note guys!" I gave a watery laugh and scratched the back of my neck. "I didn't want to have to drag you guys though all that crap, but it was a kind of important back story to why you guys need to help me. Koenma personally contacted me once he realized that I was Takumi Ogawa's daughter. I'm pretty sure the immortality recipe is somewhere in there and he wants me to go burn it or something like that."

"So our job is basically to guide you to the forest in search for this potion and destroy it," Kurama said after a while.

"Precisely," I nodded.

"Then you guys can handle this mission on you're own," Hiei emerged from the shadows, his face still cast that signature scowl as he headed towards the door.

"Hey! Why are you being an asshole, she's asking for her help and it's for a pretty freaking good reason!" Kuwabara yelled, he closed his fists and took a fighting stance.

"I'm not on parole anymore and this case doesn't benefit or concern me in the slightest way. I refuse to be dragged around as a body guard for a lost cause," he sneered, making me feel lower than dirt.

"W-wait!" I ran as fast as I could to the door, and held my arms open. Hiei was short, but he still had a good inch or two from me, and the way he intimidated me just made him seem so much taller. "I asked Koenma to give me his best team, and I know they can't do it without you The woods that my father lived in were dangerous enough to kill most of the beasts that dwelt within it and Hayako is even worse, so I'm asking you to please help me!," I slumped onto the floor, down to my knees, and begged.

He looked at me like some pathetic creature. "You should be happy I'm still here listening to you prattle on about your useless nonsense, but your father never explicitly stated what was in that book. For all we know, we could be risking out time and our lives over something that you're taking a complete guess on."

"What else would it be?!" I cried out. "And even if the potion to immortality isn't there, things are going to get worse if we don't at least try."

"I don't care," he stated dryly, as he stepped beside me and swiftly opened the door.

"There are spells in there. Spells and potions for everything, probably kept in jars lined under the floorboard. For all I know, one of those potions could make you the strongest being alive," I said in my most enticing voice. From the moment he paused, I knew he took the bait. "It could give you ultimate power."

He turned his head slowly and gave me a look so menacing, I could practically feel my skin melt off the bone.

"You better not be wrong about this, _Hiroko,_" he said my name with such malice, I almost wanted to cower behind Botan. But I stood up and held my ground, staring at him with the bravest face I could muster.

"I promise I won't be."

* * *

They had me stay at Genki's place until the preparations to leave were complete. Luckily, Kurama seemed to know the forest well and as soon as it was mentioned, he began drawing drafts on the safest possible route. All I knew about my dad's old cabin was that it was situated smack dab in the middle of the damn area and from the look on Kurama's face, it wasn't exactly the easiest place to get to.

Genki's house was huge, and although she kindly allowed me to stay in one of her rooms, I never saw the woman myself. Yusuke would often visit along with Kuwabara, and the team would use her area as a sort of hang out spot. Yukina was probably the best thing about my stay as she genuinely enjoyed my company although all we did was eat and have tea together. Hiei was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't really mind. Being in the same room with someone who hates your guts for literally no reason was not exactly the bees knees.

The preparations were taking longer to plan out, but I honestly didn't mind. Koenma assured me that Kurama was probably one of the most intelligent and reliable when it came to mapping areas, considering he was dubbed one of the most infamous thieves in the past, so I felt a small sense of relief knowing that this mission was being taken seriously. To kill time, I just baked. It was my favorite past time, and my dad's best hobby, I always found it funny how he went from being a potions master to a pastry chef, but he just laughed and reminded me that cooking was a lot like brewing potions. It required training, discipline, and experimentation, but the difference was that if he messed up on a pastry, the most it could do was burn. With potions you never could predict the outcome.

"Where the hell are my cake tarts," I asked, lifting the tray up to make sure that I didn't somehow hide it under the tray I just cooked it in.

Yusuke yelped, holding the raspberry treat in his hands. He swallowed the rest of the dessert before answering. "I thought Kurama brought these in," he had the audacity to take another bite in front of me.

"I thought that as well," Yukina answered quietly, embarrassed by the fact that she took one too.

"I thought Yukina made it," Kurama looked at Yukina who shook her head.

"These things are pretty good though, what are they?" Kuwabara already had three on his plate.

I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride, suddenly forgetting I was angry. "They're Hiroko's. It's my mom's secret recipe, unfortunately only her and dad know the correct way how to make it. I've been trying to make it correctly for years, but I still can't do it like they could," I frowned.

"Your parents named you after a dessert" Yusuke asked.

"My dad named me after Hiroko Ogawa, a famous pastry chef, who incidentally named this cake tart after himself. Anyways, this raspberry Grand Mariner cream cake tart was made by Hiroko and my dad loved it so much, he literally named me after it," everyone stared at me in disbelief. "Dad was a weird guy, he was close to naming me caramel because of my hair color," my dad was was a complete nut, but I loved him.

"Caramel? Your hair is more rust colored," Kuwabara pointed out.

"Thanks," I stated dryly. Who the hell wants to be told that their hair looked "rust" colored.

"Great, we already have two red heads on this team, now we have a third," Yusuke spat as Kurama and Kuwabara shot him insulted looks. "Not that it's a bad thing!" said with an uneasy laugh.

Kurama cleared his throat until he gained all of our attention, he held a small notebook out and read the contents, "We're going to head out in about three days, I'll need you guys to be prepared, anything could happen in the Makai forest," Kurama stated, suddenly bringing the room into a more serious situation. "Our number one priority will be keeping Hiroko safe, the second is to try and stay as a group. There are a lot of obstacles we have to avoid if we don't want ourselves to become separated. The trek will take two days at the very least," he murmured absentmindedly, looking over the plans with worry etched onto his face.

"Kurama, you're kinda scaring me with that look you have on," Kuwabara noticed.

"Ah, sorry. It's just been a while since I've been in an area like this, I'm just trying to recall all the things I've encountered there before so I know what to avoid. Anyways, now that we're done here, I better go find Hiei to make sure he's on the same page with us," he nodded before leaving the room.

"So what's up with Kurama and Hiei?" I asked after I made sure he wasn't an earshot away.

"They used to work together, from what I've seen he gets along with Kurama the most. Hiei trusts him with his life," Yusuke replied as the rest of the people in the room nodded.

"Do you think he's really going to help us?" I had no confidence in my voice, Hiei looked like the type of person that could change his mind any second.

"If anyone is going to convince Hiei to go, it's Kurama. So please, have faith in him," Yukina gently touched my arm and I responded by squeezing her hand.

"He's going to help. You offered him something and he seemed interested by it. Plus, I've worked with Hiei for a good amount of time, and once he warms up to you, he actually isn't that bad of a person," Yusuke explained. "He may seem a little intimidating, and he would probably never admit it, but he's a good person, and a loyal teammate."

"Although he could be kind of a dick sometimes," Kuwabara said begrudgingly.

* * *

Hiei's POV

"We're heading out in three days, so be ready," Kurama yelled from the bottom of the tree. He tossed a small take out box up in the air as I caught it with ease.

"What the hell is this?" I sneered, sniffing the box.

"Try it, it's pretty good. Hiroko made it," he took out his rose whip and used it to swing onto the branch I currently perched myself on.

"I don't want it," I tossed it back to him in disgust. "From what I can tell, she's not worth helping. She's weak and clumsy and will most likely be killed in the first three minutes in Makai," the spot up in the branch was perfect for spying on people, and Hiroko always seemed to be everywhere at once.

"Looks like someone is a little stalker," Kurama teased in a sing song voice. I tried to punch him, but he easily dodged, letting out a lighthearted laugh.

"Now Hiei, let's not get too hasty. She seems seems like she has a lot of potential," he mused as he looked glanced down at her.

I snorted loudly. "Kurama, I saw her trip on a rock. Twice. It was the same rock," the most pathetic part was I wasn't even lying about this.

"Say all you want, but the girl has a determination like no other. She might have the coordination of a mentally challenged giraffe, but she has the soul of a warrior. I've seen the look in her eyes, she'll stop at nothing until she gets what she wants," his tone was a lot more somber as his gaze intensified.

"Well see about that," Kurama just gave me that all-knowing smile that I grew to despise. He left the take out box by my side which I tried chucking back at him.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all for reading to the end of this! Hopefully I'll be able to smooth things out as the story progresses, but for now, it's a bit scratchy.**

**Don't be scared to drop a review! I get lonely :(**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N: This story will mostly be in Hiroki's POV with short sequences involving Hiei)**

* * *

"Any defining qualities?" Kurama asked as he wrote in his moleskin notebook. It was two days before we departed and he had to make sure we had everything we needed.

"Explain qualities...," I repeated, I learned forward a little and narrowed my eyes.

"Special strengths, powers, things that you excel in," he explained.

"Um, I'm good at following directions, can work well in a group setting, and I'm punctual and reliable," I tried to pull out what I wrote in my resume under _additional talents_. Now that I thought about it, I don't think I ever got a call back from that retail position.

"So no supernatural qualities," he wrote down in his notebook. This felt eerily like a job interview that I was in the process of failing.

"Some people told me I'm really good at soccer, like freakishly good,"

I was shit at soccer.

Kurama just peered at me as if he was trying to make sure I had a brain.

"My dad was a pretty good fey and my mom had some type of non human blood in her, but it was dated a while back that by the time the bloodline trickled down into her generation, no one in her family had powers. And from what I know, I don't really think I have anything inhuman in me, the only thing that separates me from everyone else is my knowledge about the supernatural. I used to hunt with my dad, but I don't really think those talents would really apply since Makai is a completely different place," I sighed, feeling oddly disappointed in myself.

"That's okay, I didn't expect you to have any," he smiled reassuringly. "I just need to make sure so we can make this mission run as smoothly as possible. We have to make sure everything goes according to plan and to do that I need to know what you can and can't do, it would help greatly when it comes to safety measures."

I could feel Hiei's glare behind me as Kurama kept scribbling down things that made me an inefficient human being. God, listing all my weaknesses was harder than I ever thought it would be, but that might be because the main person that was in charge of my safety was probably the person that wanted me dead.

Kurama figured that Hiei was probably the most suited when it came to my protection, and out of my many protests that involved groveling down to my knees and begging, Kurama was adamant that this was the safest option. He would be leading the group while Hiei specifically set an eye out for me. Kuwabara and Yusuke would be stationed behind us in case anything were to attack from the back. He tried to assure me that Hiei was in fact, not out to kill me, but every click from Hiei's tongue every time Kurama wrote down one of my inadequacies made me think otherwise.

"So you basically can't do anything," Hiei sat up from the chair he was brooding in only to have that same look directed towards me.

"I wouldn't say I'm completely useless," I shrunk back into my chair as Kurama shot him a warning glance. He ignored Kurama and advanced towards me.

"Look, I am not going to risk my abilities for an insufficient excuse for a living creature who can't even protect herself," the way he said it was oddly casual, like he was talking down to a child instead of giving me a verbal slap in the face.

"You don't have to be the one looking out for me Hiei! Christ, if it bothers you that much, then I'll get someone else to do it!," I could feel the anger boiling inside of me as I stood up, standing on the balls of my feet to try to tower over him.

"You idiot! You don't understand do you? Yes you are pathetic, and yes you are weak, but I don't think you understand how dangerous of a place Makai is. No average human could walk in there and come out unscathed, I'm doing you a favor by telling you to let us handle this and save you from killing yourself," he raised his voice at me but not quite to the level of yelling. I, on the other hand, was screeching.

"I don't care if I fucking die! I just need someone to take me there and you can all ditch me in the middle of the forest for all I care!"

"Believe me when I say that I don't give a damn if you die or not, I'm just telling you that I won't be too keen on helping some selfish girl kill herself just for a chance to see her father's abandoned legacy," his voice was calm, but every word felt like I was being gutted slowly.

"You fucking—" I raised my hand to try to punch him, but he quickly grabbed it, lifting my arms over my head. Yusuke or Kuwabara made a comment, but the only thing I could really hear was the angry buzzing and my short huffs of air. Hiei made it seem like we were the only two people in the room, a gesture that would seem so intimate if it weren't for my heightened need to inflict pain on him. He watched me struggle as I did my best to break free, but he just tightened his grip. I probably looked really stupid and I thought he had some type of smirk, but he just looked perplexed.

He let go of my wrists as I fell, ass first onto the floor. "I may be weak by your standards, but at least I'm more alive than you'll ever be," I rubbed my wrists, there were definitely going to be bruises in the morning.

He sneered down at me. "What do you mean by that you stupid girl," he tried to act like my comment didn't affect him, but by the way his fists were clenched, I could tell I was getting some type of reaction from him.

"You may physically be stronger than me, but you're the pathetic one. At least I have something to live for, better yet, I have something I'm willing to risk my life for, and what do you have?" Hiei looked surprised, and I could swear he took a few steps back when I got up. "You probably have some fucked up inner turmoil shit you have yet to deal with since you always seem to have a stick up your ass. The difference between you and me is I'm working through it while you've just allowed yourself to turn into some jaded douche. So that's why I won't let some angry, selfish, and bitter imp tell me I'm not worth anything."

Everyone in the room was suddenly slack jawed, probably from Hiei's reaction rather than my words. He looked completely mortified, and for a moment I thought he was going to use that katana of his to cut me up into pretty little pieces, but he just stood there, wide eyed and mouth open.

I was breathing pretty hard at this point, wondering how my anger could get me so exhausted. "I'm going to go now, it's late and I think it's better if we finish this in the morning," I turned to Kurama who agreed in return.

The room was silent as I left the scene, the only sound being the resounding creak of the door as I closed it behind me.

* * *

Hiei's POV

"Woah," the spirit detective leaned back on his chair, far enough to tempt me to run over there and push him off.

Kurama chuckled as he looked at me in almost a pitying way. "Hiroko sure has quite the backbone doesn't she Hiei?"

"Yea, it's pretty weird actually. We were speaking to her the other day and she seemed scared of you," the stupid one mentioned.

"You pretty much had her completely terrified. It's pretty surprising how she shocked the hell out of us with that speech," Yusuke laughed. "I specially loved the part when she called you an imp."

I made a mental note to kill Yusuke during his sleep. But he had a point, that girl was really something. She was a simple human by normal standards, but her determination had no bounds and that look in her eyes made me question everything I drew her out to be. She had spirit, I'll give her that, but spirit can only do so much on the battlefield.

"I kinda like her," Yusuke grinned as he turned around and pointed to me. "Hiei, take my advice and be nice to her. You probably might never find a girl who's shorter than you," he snorted.

I stepped out of the room, remembering to knock the spirit detective off his chair before I left.

* * *

Hiroko's POV

In the morning, Genkai's place looked like the lovely traditional Japanese style home that it was created to be. At night, I felt like I was in the middle of some Korean horror film. Everything made a sound, and the walls were far too thin to block the ghostly whistling of the night air. That little debacle with Hiei just got me irritated, and I fell asleep early only to wake up thirsty and disoriented.

I calmed down a lot after that, and stupidly realized that I let my mouth run before my head again. Of course I wanted to get rid of that potion, but seeing the world my dad left behind was probably the most important thing to me, and knowing that Hiei read my thoughts straight on only further annoyed me. But no matter how suicidal I seemed about this whole mission, I didn't want to die, and I knew my best chance of survival was if he helped me.

With a loud and angry groan, I hopped out of bed, annoyed at myself from what I said to Hiei. What if I completely fucked up this time? I mentally laughed at the thought of Hiei trying to kill me before I even stepped foot onto Makai.

The kitchen was pretty far from where my room was, and I didn't know the area well enough to know where the light switches were. I contemplated on asking Yukina to come with me, since her room was only across from mine, but I didn't want to look like a scared idiot, so I reluctantly felt my way along the narrow hallways of Genkai's house.

"GAHHMMUTFFUCK," were the words that so eloquently left my mouth. I believe it was the mixture of "gah oh my god mother of fuck" but it all came out in a mess of words and screams as something shattered. I swore I felt something run over my foot which led me to jolt and knock that unknown piece of furniture over. In my defense, it was around summer time and insects are fucking terrible this time around.

I heard a rustle of fabric and my skin suddenly crawled, knowing someone was in the room with me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing," a familiar voice asked me. The lights flickered on to show me that I was near the front of the house, far from the kitchen. Not even close Hiroko, not even close.

Hiei stood near the light switch, shaking his head in disapproval.

"I wanted a glass of water, but I didn't know where the light switch was so I accidentally knocked into something ," I mumbled, leaving the part about the bug out. I looked down to see a shattered vase, hopefully inexpensive from the look of it. I was going to ask Hiei what he was doing here, but I remembered that basically everyone I met the last couple of days invited themselves in here like it was their own freaking house.

He stared at my arm which felt strangely wet now that I thought about it.

"Your arm..." he trailed off, looking back at my face to see if I noticed. Blood dripped from my elbows down to my hand, trickling in a slow and straight motion. I honestly didn't even realize it was there, I was too busy screaming my head off.

"Oh, I'll me fine. It's just a little scratch," I waved him off, looking back down at my arm.

Yea, fuck. It wasn't little.

As soon as he said it, I felt a searing pain in my arm. The gash wasn't huge, but it was deep, and the blood was making it's merry little way back into the wooden floorboards. I suddenly felt ill, blood on wood was just too fresh of a memory right now.

I expected Hiei to make some snide remark, after all, now was the perfect moment. But to my surprise, he wordlessly grabbed my good hand and led me down the hall to the front of Yukina's room. For a person who had such a cold exterior, he had the warmest hands I'd ever felt. He knocked lightly until I heard a shuffle as the lights in her room turned on.

Yukina, bright eyed and wonderful Yukina opened the door in confusion. Even with her hair mussed up with sleep, she looked adorable as she rubbed the tired out of her face. Her crimson eyes widened as she stared at the bloody gash on my arm.

"Ahh, Hiroko, what happened!" she squeaked. Oh god, even her terrified expression was cute.

"Uh. I wanted water and I tripped and fell," I answered sheepishly. If anyone saw me with any type of injury with Hiei in tow, they would probably put two and two together and blame it entirely on Hiei, but Yukina seemed like the type of person who had a hard time blaming anyone.

"Hiei, could you hand me a tray of water and the bandages in the bathroom?" she asked him, motioning for me to sit down while she tenderly inspected my wound. I expected Hiei to scoff and refuse, but he just nodded and came back a few moments later with what Yukina asked for. I was going to make a comment on the water being dipped in cyanide but I thought better.

She cleaned the blood off of my arms while Hiei took his designated spot in the corner of the room. Having him here felt off and I didn't like the constant worry of wondering if he really hated me or not.

"It doesn't look as bad as I thought," Yukina sighed in relief. She was right, after everything was cleaned up, the scar looked considerably less menacing, but the pain was still there, and the cut was still pretty nasty.

"Since the wound is shallow, I'll be able to fix most of the damage," I felt such a warm and comforting energy emitting from Yukina as she concentrated on my wound. I watched mesmerized as my skin started to stitch itself up until it was only a pink scar. The pain was still a bit there, it was a little stiff as she placed her fingers on it, but it was a lot better than a couple of minutes ago.

"Woah..," were the only words I could really muster as I stared at Yukina in awe. "Are you a goddess?" I asked, completely serious. She only smiled as shook her head. In books and countless of stories passed down from person to person, demons were always depicted as cruel and evil creatures, but meeting demons like Yukina made me think otherwise.

"Oh! I should get that water you wanted!" she got up from the floor and dashed out of the room before I could tell her that it was okay. I almost forgot Hiei was in the room until I heard him shifting from the corner, standing a few feet away from me.

I put my head down in shame, not really ready to talk to him. "I'm sorry about today," I forced myself to look at him, expecting a scathing look. He just stared at me inquisitively, his eyes zoning down to my arm. At first, I thought he was staring at my scar, but his eyes were locked on my wrists, which were now a dark purplish color.

My eyes met his and he turned away almost guiltily. "It's okay really, it's not as bad as this motherfucker right here," I grinned, pointing to my newly healed scar. "And.. and I was being stupid. I'm sorry I called you an angry, selfish, and bitter imp," I whispered those next words rather fast as I felt Hiei tense up. "You were just trying to put me in my place and I wasn't listening, so I'm sorry. And I really need you for this mission, so please don't leave because of my minor fuck up."

"Just don't die. The clean up is messy and I don't want to be responsible for your death," he said after a while.

"You know Hiei, your friends were right," Hiei stopped before he reached the door to stare down at me, this time, with no trace of that usual scowl. "You may be all boorish and moody at times, but you really aren't half bad," I shot him a stupid grin. He just clicked his tongue and walked away.

He left, leaving me with only that warm feeling on my hands from when he led me to Yukina's room.

* * *

**(A/N: I was initially going to name this "A Piece of Hiroko" as a play on words, but I didn't really think people would get it. )**

**Also fun fact from the last chapter! In real life, Hiroko Ogawa IS a real pastry chef and there really is a cake tart made after him. **

**Shiningheart of ThunderCan: I always pictured Kurama as the type of person who would be prim and proper in a normal setting, but would probably be pretty playful around his friends since he always seemed to get a knack off of teasing Hiei. And, come ooon, we all know Kurama has his sassy moments. **


End file.
